Playing the first Devil May Cry, the opening cutscenes give you a good deal to go off of. Okay, sure, this guy is a Badass Longcoat, I get it. Nigh invulnerable, uses two guns, nice... It's all very nice, seems like it is ramping up to be a cool action game. Then you see this scene. There's a point during it when you think to yourself, "No, he's not going to do that!" But he does. This was the make-or-break moment: if you weren't mesmerized by the sheer coolness of that scene, chances were this wasn't the game for you.

Related mention: most awesome indirect way to introduce a game mechanic ever ("surfing" on fallen enemies).

More from 3: Dante using a motor bike to drive up the vertical walls of a gigantic tower (gravity? We don't need no stinkin' gravity.) and then beating up mooks using said motorbike as a weapon?Made of Win!

Right before the first fight against Mundus: 1:25 in, full stop. After about twenty levels worth of Badass taunts and one liners, we get to see what Dante's like when he's really pissed off. No joking, just a Berserk Button being pushed and a badass, three-part fight following.

Though it's just a cameo, one of the endings in Capcom Fighting Evolution shows Jedah conquering the world and laughing evilly... and then, it proceeds to show Dante ready to challenge him.

In 3, Dante's epic wall run down the tower just before mission 8 starts. Jumping off the mooks and shooting, breaking out of being surrounded by doing some sort of spinny attack, then throwing his sword and nailing it with a bullet to increase the speed at which it impales the mooks.

Dante SURFING ON A FUCKING ROCKET in DMC 3.

Vergil

The very first time you see Vergil after the opening cutscene (which is a CMoA in and of itself), he's standing on top of the Temen Ni Gru with Arkham, discussing their plot. Arkham goes into a long rant about how the Temen Ni Gru was built by "the greatest architects of their time, those who revered evil," in order to create a bridge to the demon realm. Vergil cuts him short, not even remotely interested in anything other than whether or not Dante has "it." Then the sand demon you just defeated in the second level shows up, and appears to be begging Vergil's forgiveness. Vergil just turns around, takes a few steps, then unsheathes Yamato and cuts the demon into three pieces. He even times it so that the demon splits just as he's finished putting the sword back in its sheath.

The first time you face Vergil in DMC 3, the game doesn't let you win. But you won't care because the way he defeats Dante after having his life bar drained is just that Bad Ass.

A few seconds later, Vergil turns his Badass Back on a supine Dante. Cue Finger Twitching Revival. BAM — Vergil runs him through a second time without an instant of hesitation.

The best part of your crowning moment of awesome losing scene really needs mention. Dante unloads about seven rounds at Vergil with Ivory. Vergil just starts spinning his sword, catching every bullet, then lays four of them on the ground in a neat row with his sword and bats them back with a quick flick.

When Arkham ceases to be of use to him, Vergil confronts the man with his dark history, revealing that he knew all along how Arkham was a backstabbing schemer who would go to any lengths to acquire power. He then stabs him through the gut. Of course, Arkham wasn't really dead...

Vergil's Curb-Stomp Battle against Beowulf, a boss that gave Dante considerably more trouble in the previous level. Witness it here. What makes it even more awesome is that he barely even reacts to Beowulf's arrival. He doesn't act confused before figuring it out like Dante, he just recognizes that this poor sucker means to kill him, and beats him to it.

Proving that Vergil's defining feature is his subtlety as opposed to Dante's over-the-top style, he manages to achieve a CMoA just by walking through a library. This may have been due to the scene establishing that he was Back from the Dead, however.

As for the final battle, Game Informer Magazine put it best: "The mark of a great final boss is when players can look at their maxed-out, unstoppable juggernaut of a hero, then glance at their opponent and still wish that they could switch places."

As long as we're discussing Lady being made of win, how about her climbing up a freaking building after getting stabbed through the leg? (Made of Iron indeed...)

"Mary died a long time ago. My name... is Lady."

Lady and Dante fight off an army of mooks. Dante leaves to run through the next stage. After the stage is over, it's shown Lady is still fighting, and that she wins (all while being a normal human, a Badass Normal human, but a human nonetheless). Tethercat Principle at it's finest.

Nero

It is arguable that Nero was Rescued from the Scrappy Heap entirely on Crowning Moments Of Awesome. Nailing Dante with a slow-seeming, should-have-been-easily-dodged dropkick? Pummelling Dante in the head, even if later shown ineffectual, and impaling him to a statue of his father using his own sword? Lifting and smacking around the giant fire demon Berial? Spitting blood in Agnus's face? Giving Dante the finger even as he falls victim to the villains' trap? Finally showing the true power of the Devil Bringer as he battles the Big Bad for the final time? Taking out the Big Bad with a combo of throwing your sword, a hookshot grab with the Devil Bringer and an Offhand Backhand? Crushing the head of the giant Savior? All brilliant.

Every time Nero uses a Devil Triggered Buster on a boss, with the pinnacle the one in the first battle with Sanctus, where a seriously pissed Nero pummels the Big Bad in the stomach so hard that the sequence ends with the villain begging Nero to stop!

You gotta love the line he delivers, too. "I've had enough of your bullshit!" indeed.

Or the alternate line he delivers: "YOU'RE the demon! Not me!"

"Pray for Hell to save you, cause you're gonna need it!"

And the ultimate nod to the fandom right as he delivers the final blow: "JACKPOT!!" This troper punched air the moment he heard that. Check it out here, but be warned...spoilers accompany the awesome.

And then after the battle, before the face-smashing Curb-Stomp Battle against Savior-Sanctus, Nero walks away from the carnage not only with Kyrie safe and sound in his arms, but Sparda lashed to his back. Let's face it, having that weapon in tow makes anyone a Badass, but for Nero, it just cranks his Badass quotient beyond measurable amounts.

What really made that part poignant was the fact that after coming out Nero just hands the Sparda off to to Dante. [[spoiler: The big bad relied on that thing for all his powers and Nero just went "Nah, don't need to use that sword, I got enough badass in this Devil Bringer."

This troper found the rescue of Kyrie/defeat of Sanctus a genuinely emotionally powerful scene; all the more awesome because Devil May Cry 4 is sometimes of an over-the-top, comedic action game rather than a drama.

For this troper, there has been no better moment at all than the second half and ending of the battle agaisnt Arkham: Dante and Vergil team up to kick his ass, fighting as a real team despite having been trying to kill one another not long ago, and their moves synchronize, they even exchange weapons to show even further levels of skill and badassery. Finishing with a dual attack which also works as reminder of a CMoA in the first game. One word summed up pretty well the whole thing: Jackpot!

For the player: surviving the entirety of Dante Must Die mode in the first game would cause Dante to have some of his dialogue change during the ending sequence, along with a remixed version of the result screen theme. You're then rewarded with Super Dante - picking him on a New Game means he has his base stats and weapons, but when you get Alastor and Ifrit, this Dante has infinite Devil Trigger!

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